In many electronic applications it is necessary to strip and crimp contacts to a large number of wires, particularly in cable assemblies. Oftentimes, the cable will include differently sized wires requiring differently shaped and sized contacts to be attached to the ends thereof. Most often the crimping of contacts onto strip wires is accomplished by manually stripping the wires and then utilizing a hand-crimping tool for attaching the contacts. It is not unusual for cable assemblies to include 250-1,000 wires. As will be appreciated, the attachment of contacts by a strictly manual method is quite time consuming.
Automated wire strippers and contact crimpers do exist but their utilization in an automated procedure usually requires the movement of the cable assembly from one work station to another. With the movement of large cables this has several drawbacks, including the labor intensity of the task.